Meetings start for municipal budget in Tenafly

TENAFLY – Borough officials met with various department heads to hash out this year's spending plan and review different requests on Feb. 15.

Though the municipal budget at this point does not increase, several departments, including the Building and Recreation, youth services and senior center made requests that ranged from the desire for a new building to maintaining borough fields.

Officials met with Building Department Director Robert Byrnes who expressed the desire for either allowing the code enforcement officer to work full time or hire someone to assist him.

"I personally appreciate you doing more with less," Mayor Peter Rustin said. "I think the staff is doing a terrific job. They are wearing many hats."

Property maintenance, which is also handled by the code enforcer, is getting slammed lately with the abundance of snow and various complaints.

The position was full time, but was cut several years ago to 29 hours a week.

However, bumping up the code enforcer to full time would add more than $30,000 in benefits alone.

Councilman Maxim Basch suggested possibly hiring an additional person to assist with code enforcement and property maintenance. Councilwoman Nadia LaMastra, who agreed with the idea, said as long as both individuals communicate with each other with work hours overlapping.

In addition to possibly hiring another person, officials will consider making the filing process paperless.

"In [Englewood] they don't have paper permits anymore, the [property inspector's] use iPads," LaMastra said. "They fill everything out in the field."

After meeting with Byrnes, Youth Center Director Mark Slawson notified officials that in the next few years, the center may need a bigger space to house activities for teenagers.

The youth center is free to students in the fifth through 11th grades and capacity has steadily grown over time. Teens at the center have access to a computer room, various video game systems and sports equipment.

"For some reason in the last couple of years, 10th and 11th grades have been coming more and more," Slawson said. "The legal capacity is 98 and we are getting well over 100."

Rustin questioned if the current space at 100 Riveredge Road is being utilized well with Slawson saying he's worked on moving things around and getting rid of equipment, such as arcade game booths, that are underutilized.

"We're probably good for maybe two to three years but I see it coming," Slawson said.

Senior Center Director Julie Villafuerte echoed the same need for more space as programs for seniors are growing rapidly.

"In the nine years I've been here we've more than doubled," Villafuerte said. "Partially there are more seniors out there so I'm not going to take full credit but when I took over we averaged 45 people a day and now I average about 100."

Councilman Mark Zinna is in the process of looking at ways to improve the center or even secure a new space.

"We're working on the concept of trying to get a new senior center built somewhere at no cost to the borough," Zinna said. "It all has to be figured out."

The center offers programs for seniors that range from free admission to a small fee — usually $2 to $5. The idea was floated to raise the fee but Rustin said some seniors may be on a fixed income.

The council is putting $2,000 into the budget for the senior advisory committee to create a newsletter with useful information targeted at seniors.

"This is something that would be above and beyond [the existing senior newsletter] with useful information for seniors," LaMastra said.

Recreation Department Director Matthew Mercurio brought several requests for his budget to officials including setting aside money for several years to repair the turf on the municipal field.

"I think it's money well spent repairing that artificial turf," Rustin said. "I believe that turf will last much longer than what's predicted and it's a good investment."

The fund would collect about $180,000 in a two to three year period in preparation of updating the turf.

Last year a representative from FieldTurf, Inc., which installed the turf, assessed the field and recommended the upgrades occur within the next several years, Mercurio said. Usually turf has a 10-year lifespan and Muncipal Field is at its 10-year mark.

"They were very surprised at how much life is actually still in it," Mercurio said. "In two or three more years, it might be bone, bone dry."

LaMastra expressed support for setting aside the money and said there's a cushion in the budget to start the reserve.

Fees for Recreation Summer Camp are also rising from $450 to $500 for six weeks of camp due to a drop off in non-residents. For non-residents it's $700.

"If you're doing it per hour, you're talking about child care for $2.32 an hour," Mercurio said. "The reason why we we're looking to raise the rate, the first year here we were split between residents and non-residents. We are running a better camp now but last year we had 350 residents and only 50 non-residents and that dropped our bottom line by $20,000."

Meetings start for municipal budget in Tenafly

TENAFLY – Borough officials met with various department heads to hash out this year's spending plan and review different requests on Feb. 15.

Though the municipal budget at this point does not increase, several departments, including the Building and Recreation, youth services and senior center made requests that ranged from the desire for a new building to maintaining borough fields.

Officials met with Building Department Director Robert Byrnes who expressed the desire for either allowing the code enforcement officer to work full time or hire someone to assist him.

"I personally appreciate you doing more with less," Mayor Peter Rustin said. "I think the staff is doing a terrific job. They are wearing many hats."

Property maintenance, which is also handled by the code enforcer, is getting slammed lately with the abundance of snow and various complaints.

The position was full time, but was cut several years ago to 29 hours a week.

However, bumping up the code enforcer to full time would add more than $30,000 in benefits alone.

Councilman Maxim Basch suggested possibly hiring an additional person to assist with code enforcement and property maintenance. Councilwoman Nadia LaMastra, who agreed with the idea, said as long as both individuals communicate with each other with work hours overlapping.

In addition to possibly hiring another person, officials will consider making the filing process paperless.

"In [Englewood] they don't have paper permits anymore, the [property inspector's] use iPads," LaMastra said. "They fill everything out in the field."

After meeting with Byrnes, Youth Center Director Mark Slawson notified officials that in the next few years, the center may need a bigger space to house activities for teenagers.

The youth center is free to students in the fifth through 11th grades and capacity has steadily grown over time. Teens at the center have access to a computer room, various video game systems and sports equipment.

"For some reason in the last couple of years, 10th and 11th grades have been coming more and more," Slawson said. "The legal capacity is 98 and we are getting well over 100."

Rustin questioned if the current space at 100 Riveredge Road is being utilized well with Slawson saying he's worked on moving things around and getting rid of equipment, such as arcade game booths, that are underutilized.

"We're probably good for maybe two to three years but I see it coming," Slawson said.

Senior Center Director Julie Villafuerte echoed the same need for more space as programs for seniors are growing rapidly.

"In the nine years I've been here we've more than doubled," Villafuerte said. "Partially there are more seniors out there so I'm not going to take full credit but when I took over we averaged 45 people a day and now I average about 100."

Councilman Mark Zinna is in the process of looking at ways to improve the center or even secure a new space.

"We're working on the concept of trying to get a new senior center built somewhere at no cost to the borough," Zinna said. "It all has to be figured out."

The center offers programs for seniors that range from free admission to a small fee — usually $2 to $5. The idea was floated to raise the fee but Rustin said some seniors may be on a fixed income.

The council is putting $2,000 into the budget for the senior advisory committee to create a newsletter with useful information targeted at seniors.